Picking fruit, making jam

The thing about picking fruit and making jam is that you don't have a whole lot of control over the timing. When the fruit is ripe, you have to pick it. And once you've picked it, you have to make jam right away. It doesn't matter how busy you are. One day in May (which seemed early to me!) an elderly lady from church called us and invited us to pick apricots from her tree. We were excited about that, because last year her tree didn't produce any fruit at all, and she told us she thought it was done.

There were tons, and the kids had fun climbing the tree.

Everyone wants to use the picker Dallin's using.

This is Beth, and she is like a grandma to our kids. She loves to have them over and give them things. Levi hasn't been there nearly as much since he started Kindergarten. 

The first batch didn't set up (grrr...) so I had to boil it until it thickened. That kind of worked. The second batch worked better. 

Then the kids told me the cherry plums from our tree were ripe. But I was all jammed out from the apricots, so I told them they couldn't pick them until I was ready to make jam again.  

Beth taught me a cool trick about plums, which can be a pain to cut up with the pits. I put them in a pot and cook them over medium heat.

After a very short time, they get all juicy. I help it along with the potato masher. 

Then I pour it through a strainer to take out all the pits and skins. Isn't that a beautiful color? Then I add the sugar and let it sit. My first batch of apricot jam didn't work, and I didn't like the recipe on the box. It said to boil the sugar with the pectin and water and then add it to the fruit. Instead I just boil the pectin with the water and add that to the fruit/sugar. That seems to work much better.

All mixed and ready to put into jars.

I made a batch of jam and a batch of plum syrup. Then I cleaned my sticky kitchen.